Georgei Ivanovitch Gurdjieff was beloved by many in his Russian
homeland and around the world, while others considered him a fraud. Many
thought him a great mystical teacher (see Mysticism).
It
was his liberation philosophy, commonly known "the Work" that
turned occultism in a different in the 1920s and paved the way for modern
techniques of group and encounter therapy.

The exact year of his birth is in dispute; Gurdjieff stated it as 1866,
while his sister said it was 1877, and his biographer, J.
G.
Bennett, puts it at 1877.All agree, however, that Gurdjieff was born
in Alexandropol, in the Russo-Turkish frontier. His father came from the
Ionian Greeks of Caesarea whose heritage dates back beyond the Christian
era. These people preserved their culture while living for centuries under
foreign rule, and won the admiration of all who knew them. In the 16th
century
some of the families withdrew to the northeast following the overthrow of
the Byzantine Empire. Gurdjieff's relatives were among them. They were
ranchers,
or owners of sheep and cattle. In the middle of the 19th century they
departed
Turkey for Russian Caucasus.

Following the Russo-Turkish War of 1877 Gurdjieff's father lost his herds
through an epidemic of cattle disease. He then became a carpenter in the
village of Kars where Gurdjieff grew up. Kars was then am important
Russian
military center. The Dean of the Military Cathedral in Kars was Father
Borsch,
who was one of the great influences on young Gurdjieff. Priests and
doctors
taught Gurdjieff, according to his father's plan that he should prepare
himself for a single vocation, to be a physician of the body and a
confessor
of the soul.

The youth quickly became interested in mechanics, and in natural and
medical sciences, especially psycho-neurology. He delighted in the
acquisition
of skill required in every sort of manual trade. Also, in Kars there was
a multi-cultural environment that influenced the youth. Unusual
experiences
that had began showing him that supernatural forces also existed in the
life of man, which began a mental conflict for him between the materialism
of western science that he valued for its methods of accurate observation
and measurement, and the evidence of phenomena that science seemed
powerless
to give an account for.

Also, young Gurdjieff was steeped in the ancient traditions preserved
by the ballads and sagas of the Asiatic bards. His father, a bard himself,
was famed for his knowledge of the legends of the ancient Assyrian and
Sumerian
cultures. It was later in life that Gurdjieff was very impressed by the
discovery of cuneiform inscriptions that showed the accuracy with which
these poems had bee preserved for thousands of years.

The conflict between the old and the new started Gurdjieff on a search
for a knowledge, in a sense, a lost knowledge; for he had became convinced
that in some prior epoch mankind had possessed knowledge, which had been
lost, of the true sense and purpose of human life and the way to its
fulfillment.
His search began along at first; he visited ruins of ancient cities and
made archaeological discoveries. His finding only wetted his desire for
this knowledge; for he found no solution in western science, philosophy,
or in the teachings of the Christian Churches or Moslem sects that he came
in contact with. Nevertheless, there was evidence that the knowledge and
the way that he was seeking might have been preserved in isolated
communities.

Barely into manhood, Gurdjieff gathered around him a handful of young
men who were inspired with the same convictions and hopes as he was.
Together
they formed the "Seekers of Truth." Their joint task was to find
this missing knowledge and way. Singly, or in twos or threes, they
embarked
on what would become a global journey. They traveled to many continents
and countries. They visited, especially in Europe, little known areas
where
in monasteries and other places ancient traditions might be preserved.
Their
search was interrupted at intervals when the members regrouped to access
their findings. This was how they kept abreast of the latest advances in
western science, especially in astronomy, chemistry, medicine, and
psychology.

By the time at which the journeys of the Seekers of the Truth ended
before
1908, the members had penetrated many places that were inaccessible to the
ordinary traveler. They met with extraordinary men, dervishes or monks,
and sometimes-entire communities that possessed, in varying degrees,
knowledge
of the nature of man and human destiny, and ways of transmitting it. They
also had accumulated information showing that ancient traditions had a
better
understanding of the fundamental problems facing Man and the Universe than
do modern western traditions and modern science.

After the Seekers of the Truth disbanded Gurdjieff still held the
realization
that modern man was held in a state of helplessness that universally
pervaded
both the East and West. Gurdjieff was convinced man's helplessness was
caused
from man's inertia to act. He discovered this stressed in both the
teachings
of the East and West. For example, the teaching of Gotama Buddha stresses
the central place that causality plays in men lives; further saying that
man is a slave of cause and effect unless by his own choice seeks to
liberate
himself. In the Christian gospels this choice is express even stronger,
that is, the choice between gaining and losing eternal life.

Gurdjieff developed his philosophy and teaching more aligned with
Buddhism
than Christianity; for he thought Christianity, as we know it, is the
distorted
remnants that survived the falsifications of Greece and the power politics
of Roman. Within his discussion of Christianity Gurdjieff included what
he called the "Babylonian dualism" expressed in the doctrine of
'heaven' and 'hell,' which once held great power over the minds of men,
but does not correspond to reality, and has ceased to be a dominating
factor
in human behavior.

Such a concept fueled the power of Grudjieff's teaching that lies within
the elimination of everything fictitious and returning to the naked
reality
of human destiny. To Gurdjieff this destiny encompasses man's present
life,
and not a life that he wishes for. It is at this juncture that man's
choice
plays a critical part in his life. Not only was the choice of man
important,
but also the nature of his choice was essential for his liberation. There
are what Gurdjieff called real and illusionary choices. Often the latter
are mistaken for the former.

The act of the purchase of an automobile can illustrate the difference
between real and illusionary choices. Many people think they choose the
type of automobile they purchase, which is an illusionary assumption on
their behalf. The reason for this is that the type of automobile that a
person purchases usually depends upon several factors, which includes his
job, the money available for the purchase, the availability of automobiles
within the affordable price range that can be purchase, and so on. The
type
of automobile that a person purchases is usually an illusionary decision
because such a decision depends on the causality of other circumstantial
factors. In such an instance the real choice is the person's initial
decision
to buy an automobile.

In order to more readily understand Gurdjieff's teaching one must
understand
Gurdjieff's view of the ordinary man, which was that the ordinary man, for
the most part, was a machine among machines. Man reacts to what acts on
him. However, something is wrong with this scenario: Man is just a machine
among machines, but a machine which can be free, can be not a machine.
From
this Gurdjieff concluded that this would not be possible if there were not
different levels of existence. On one level of existence man is just a
machine
existing among machines; but, on another level of existence, there exists
the possibility of freedom. Gurdjieff, therefore, concluded that there are
two worlds opened to man, both are here, not one far away.

Gurdjieff knew that before man would strive for the second world he must
first be aware of it. He was convinced that in order for man to reach the
second world, man must first be convinced of the existence of the two
worlds
and of the complete difference between the existence of the one world and
the existence in the other. Gurdjieff's view of man's purpose for living
more fully described his two-worlds theory. Gurdjieff stated that man has
a two-fold purpose for living. The first purpose he must serve whether he
wants to or not -- in common with every other living being, whether plant,
animal or anything else - and this purpose is to serve in the
transformation
of energy that is required for the whole cosmic economy particularly the
economy of our solar system, our earth and our moon.

All living things including human beings, Gurdjieff concluded, are
transformers
of energy, which is their primary task. But, while men perform this
primary
task they may chose to also perform on a different level. Some men, in
other
words, chose to produce or transform a greater amount of energy than is
required of them. These men, according to Gurdjieff, seek a different
destiny
for themselves. Such men have paid their debts; they have produced their
required amount of energy and also build up a surplus for themselves.

To be understood, there are two different viewpoints possessed here.
The man who just does what is required of him usually thinks something
like
this, "This is all I can expect out of life; and all that life can
expect from me." This is an expression of no incentive; while a proper
response would be a try to make efforts, struggle to raise himself above
this level of mechanical existence, to lift himself out of this causal
mechanism.
The man possessing the second attitude changes himself into a free and
independent
being who does things that he deems necessary to do. The latter is the
response
of the man who works on himself, as Gurdjieff phrased it.

This is the man, according to Gurdjieff's judgment, that rightfully
chooses
between life and death. The life is not an imaginary life in some far-off
heaven, but rather a full and functional life on earth that contributes
to the cosmic economy; and the death is not a death in a fiery hell, but
the death of an unproductive life-or the death of the "man machine"
that Gurdjieff termed him. The one who seeks life, Gurdjieff contented,
is the man who finds that he has latent powers to perfect himself. These
latent or additional powers are not confined just to his ordinary life;
but rather with them the man discovers that he not only can do what is
required
of him in his ordinary life but also can produce a surplus of energy that
enriches his life and the lives of others. However, at the present time,
which is readily observed, there is far too small of a proportion of men
that are seeking to improve their lives, or seeking a second destiny. The
consequences of this are not good, because the amount of energy or matter
that has to be produced in the life of man is not determined by man
himself,
but by general influences. As individual production decreases world
population
must increase to maintain production. This is, at present, analogous to
herds of sheep, when sheep produce less wool the number of sheep must be
increased in order to meet the same requirement for wool. The analogy
summarizes
Gurdjieff's simplified and concentrated message: only by the unremitting
struggle of the individual for his self-perfecting can a force be created
which will change the world. Without this the world will continue in an
unproductive state, living off of itself.

Simply stated, far too many persons are just aware of their first world
or destiny, as Gurdjieff contended. They reside in a static state of
unconsciousness.
In order to break out of this state Gurdjieff also held that people had
to study under persons who already had escaped from their own robotic
existences:
a teacher, a Man Who Knows. Such people must form groups or schools where
they have to obey all of the rules, including the obligation to tell the
teacher everything, to keep silent in front of others, and to be prepared
for the teacher to lie for the "good" of the students. The students
had to achieve self-realization through work on themselves,
self-observation,
and self-remembering - conscious awareness of their surroundings 'and'
self
in the situation.

The first Gurdjieffian School opened in Moscow around the start of World
War I. His reputation spread to St. Petersburg where it caught the
attention
of P. D. Ouspensky, who became a
disciple
of Gurdjieff until latter adopted his own teachings. Upon their meeting
Ouspensky believed in eternal recurrence (endless repetition, not
improvement,
through reincarnation) and Nietzsche's idea of Superman. He gradually saw
Gurdjieff's way as a means of breaking the cycle and eventually attaining
perfection. Ouspensky started to teach the Gurdjieffian "system"
in St. Petersburg in 1915. Ouspensky developed a different teaching style
and formally set out on his own in 1924, but was still impressed with his
former teacher. Maurice Nicoll was
another exponent of Gurdjieff.

To escape the Russian Revolution Gurdjieff moved both groups to Essentuki
in the Caucasus in 1917. It was here that he established formal
procedures,
drawn in part from his previous studies with Sufi dervishes in Central
Asia,
that characterized his later work: hard, physical labor; tasks that were
below one's social or cultural station; intense emotionalism; exercise;
and complicated dance movements. Gurdjieff said such methods were "shocks"
designed to change the person's perception of himself and to further
self-awareness.
In the process the student began losing all preconceived notions and to
unify his or her various selves - the "I"s - in harmony. By working
on one's self, one could rise above a mechanical existence, make a soul,
and attain immorality.

The intellectual and upper class students participated vigorously in
manual labor and complicated dance exercises. Also, they attended lectures
on science, languages, hypnotism, and music. They were taught Sufi
breathing
and dance techniques. They were surprisingly awakened at any hour in order
to be kept alert. At times they were obliged to immediately stop whatever
they were doing and remain like statues for minutes at a time. They live
frugally and communally; but at times were asked to join Gurdjieff in his
Rabelaisian feasts and drinking parties.

A new cosmology grew from Gurdjieff's knowledge of the occult literature
and tradition. He stated that two cosmic laws govern the universe: the Law
of Three and the Law of Seven or the Octave. The Law of Three controls the
workings of the universe, based on three forces: active, passive, and
neutral.
Human beings possess three bodies: carnal, emotional, and spiritual; and
feed on three sorts of food: edible, air, and impressions. By working on
themselves people can rise from the carnal to the spiritual, and
manufacture
higher substances from the food that they consume: the alchemist's process
of transmutation.

The Law of Seven corresponds to the Pythagorean theories of harmonics.
Gurdjieff viewed life's processes as being governed by the repetition of
the seven stages of development that only proceed if given a boost, or
shock,
much as music continues along the octave over slower and faster intervals.

The ultimate symbol for Gurdjieff's worldview was the enneagram: a circle
whose circumference is divided by nine points, yielding an uneven
six-sided
figure and a triangle. The enneagram shows the whole universe, the laws
of three and seven, and how people cross the intervals via shocks by the
Man Who Knows.

Names for the Gurdjieffian system were the Fourth Way or the Way of the
Sly or Cunning Man. Gurdjieff explained that traditionally there were
three
paths toward immortality: those of the fakir, the monk, and the yogi. The
fakir undergoes extreme physical torture and reconditioning to suppress
his body to his will, but has no outlet for the emotional and
intellectual.
The monk possesses great faith and gives himself to his emotional
commitment
to God, but suffers pains of the body and intellectual starvation. The
yogi
studies and ponders the mysteries of life, but has no emotional or
physical
expression. But in the Fourth Way people do not need to suffer physical,
emotional or intellectual tortures, but merely start their own life
experiences.
They work on themselves as they are, trying to harmonize all paths and
using
every cunning trick they know to keep themselves "awake."

During his last years Gurdjieff was ill, part of his illness was due
to illnesses and injuries that he suffered during his years of traveling
and also the injuries that he received from several automobile accidents.
Within weeks following his last visit to the United States in 1925 he was
in an automobile accident that nearly killed him. As a result of this
accident
he lost his memory for months, and only slowly recovered it. This made him
realize that his time to live was short, and he resolved to put his ideas
in the form of a written exposition, so composed as to lead people step
by step to a practical way of working upon themselves. So for the next ten
years, this endeavor, except for business matters, consumed all of his
time.

His students published most of Gurdjieff's works posthumously. The first
was Ouspensky's In Search of the Miraculous, which best explains
Gurdjieff's theories. This was followed by Gurdjieff's masterwork, All
and Everything: First Series, better known as Beelzebub's Tales
to
His Grandson (1950). When circulating among his student this work
was
known as The Book, (1950). The only work published during his lifetime was
The Herald of Coming Good (1934), which was removed from
circulation
in 1935. Meetings with Remarkable Men that was designed to be the
second series was published in 1960. The third series, Life Is Real
Only
Then, "I Am," was published in the early 1970s, and consisted
of fragments of writings and diary entries.

Gurdjieff died suddenly in the American Hospital in Paris on October
29, 1949. Hundreds visited his body for four days, including his students,
friend and dignitaries from the United States, England and other
countries.
The Russian Cathedral in Paris was crowded with these and other Parisians
from all walks of life, who knew this man as a philanthropist and good
friend
of those in need. The funeral oration given by the Russian Achimandrite
was a tribute to a religious man who had long ceased to be associated with
any one church or creed.

Time Magazine once aptly described Gurdjieff as a "remarkable blend
of P. T. Barnum, Rasputin, Freud,
Groucho
Marx, and everybody's grandfather." A.G.H.